Sherif Sadek, Director of Award-Winning From Queens to Cairo, Heads to Madrid International Film Festival

NEW YORK, May 9, 2013 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Akhnaton Films (www.akhnatonfilms.com) announced today that Sherif Sadek has been nominated as Best Director of a Short Documentary for his award winning documentary, "From Queens to Cairo" (2012), at the Madrid International Film Festival, July 1 – 6, 2013. (www.madridinternationalfilmfestival.com)

Most recently, Sadek's film was the winner of Best Feature Documentary at the Queens World Film Festival, NY, held in March 2013 (www.queensworldfilmfestival.com).

Don Cato, curator of the Queens World Film Festival 2013, gave high marks to Sadek's documentary, stating, "What at first seemed ordinary, quickly turned to an unflinching drama, drawing a line between pyramids and poverty, Cairo and New York, a people's movement for freedom and the reactions of his children. It's a very, very fine piece of work!"

"When I saw this [film] at the Queens World Film Festival this year, it brought tears to my eyes," said Faiyaz Jafri, award-winning NYC filmmaker and artist (www.bam-b.com).

This informative and insightful documentary follows Egyptian-American filmmaker Sherif Sadek as he returns to his native Cairo with his family one year after the start of the Egyptian Revolution. With tons of misinformation flying around in the media, Sadek is determined to see for himself how Egyptians will navigate the bumpy road to democracy after decades of authoritarianism. His journey takes him from famed Tahrir Square to the inside of taxi cabs to rallies and slums as he searches for perspectives from all walks of life. (www.imdb.com/title/tt2580398/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

Production:

Sadek shot "From Queens to Cairo" with a Nikon D7000 HDSLR. He then used ASSIMILATE's SCRATCH software to do the conforming and turned to Jason Crump at Metropolis Post (www.metpostny.com) for the color grading in SCRATCH. Sadek was able to do the finishing himself, using the SCRATCH Finishing software. Sadek notes, "I work with SCRATCH every day in a technical support role for ASSIMILATE, but to experience its ease-of-use and powerful tool set as a user, gave me invaluable insight into the craft and creativity of post-production artists."

Sherif Sadek, Akhnaton Films:

As an American Egyptian, this film is very personal to me. Like many others, I had been awaiting change in Egypt for a very long time. It was frustrating for me not to be able to participate in the revolution, so I was determined to bring my family with me to document the first anniversary of change. (www.akhnatonfilms.com)